Top Stories
Stories in Unbalanced that you'll love, handpicked by our team.
Is It Happening?. Top Story - May 2026.
All right. It continues... It is a damp Sunday night in Montréal, and I am considering where my beloved team stands after yesterday's game. The Canadiens have made it to the semi-finals against the Carolina Hurricanes and have shocked many commentators by taking the first game against a team that shut out two other contenders in their division (Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators). It was a 6 - 2 for the local boys in the other team's barn, meaning that they managed to score more goals in one game that both teams managed to score over the four games they shared with the Canes. Everyone commented on the fantastic goaltending and playmaking on our side, and the sloppy play and weak defence of the other team. They have also noted that, because of the early wins for Carolina, they had a lot of time off between games, meaning that they were rusty and unprepared for les Habitants.
By Kendall Defoe 4 months ago in Unbalanced
Is This It?. Top Story - April 2026.
Is this finally the year? I am starting this on the Friday after Cole Caulfield of the Montreal Canadians scored his fiftieth goal. This might not matter to those of you who have no interest in ice hockey or NHL history, but for fans of the game this is important. No one on the team had reached fifty goals in one season since the great Stephane Richer played for them and reached that record in the 1998-99 season. And for a team with such a distinguished history – 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team in the league; the oldest professional hockey team, in place since 1909 – this does matter. Their own Richard “Rocket” Richard was the first player in the entire league to score fifty goals in fifty games back in the…forties (a nice touch). He was followed by Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur (other legends to reach that number). And they were supported by Serge Savard, Ken Dryden, Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey, and…
By Kendall Defoe 6 months ago in Unbalanced
Super Bowl LX Recap: A Team Called Hawks. Top Story - February 2026.
Sixty. The Super Bowl turned 60! Still amazes me that this was the sixtieth Super Bowl played in NFL history. It seems like yesterday that I watched Super Bowl XXVII, the first SB I ever watched. The QB who won Super Bowl XXVII has since called a few SBs, and will call next year's game, but that's another story. Super Bowl LX took place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the home stadium of the San Francisco 49ers. However, it was one of their division foes who represented the NFC, as the Seattle Seahawks faced off against the New England Patriots.
By Clyde E. Dawkins8 months ago in Unbalanced
Wild Card Weekend Recap: What Happens Now?. Top Story - January 2026.
I think I figured out why I love Wild Card Weekend so much. It's because it's the first playoff anything of the calendar year. The NFL season starts in the fall, and once upon a time, the champion was crowned either on or slightly before New Year's. The evolution of the NFL schedule has resulted in the playoffs starting just into the New Year, and currently, the final week of the season falls on the first weekend of the New Year, with Wild Card Weekend coming a week after that. So yes, chronologically, the NFL's Wild Card Weekend serves as the first playoff anything of the calendar year.
By Clyde E. Dawkins9 months ago in Unbalanced
What Went Wrong: We Still Own You, Boston. Top Story - October 2025.
A familiar saying comes to mind in this case: "The more things change, the more they stay the same." First off, let's talk about the fact that this was the best Wild Card Series round ever. Yes, we're only four seasons in to this format, but still. In the first three years, there were 12 series. Only two went the maximum three games: Mets/Padres in 2022, and Brewers/Mets in 2024. This year saw three deciding Game Threes, and the last one was between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.
By Clyde E. Dawkinsabout a year ago in Unbalanced
It All Comes Down to This.... Top Story - September 2025.
The 2025 MLB season has been filled with outstanding catches and moments. Now, the following teams are fighting for Wild Card spots and as the regular season winds down, every game matters. For context, I'll be focusing only on the American League in this story. I'll check in the following week to see how the records of the teams I'm about to talk about have changed. Also, next week, I'll be going over the Wild Card hunt in the National League.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard about a year ago in Unbalanced
NFL Week 11 Recap: About Damn Time. Top Story - November 2024.
For the 52nd straight season, the 1972 Miami Dolphins can pop the champagne. The Buffalo Bills defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the central game of Week 11 of the 2024 NFL season, doing so by a score of 30-21. This was a game were the Chiefs were lost for the most part, which had been the case in a lot of games this season. However, unlike past weeks, the Chiefs could not stumble their way out of this, especially with Travis Kelce being a ghost in this game, and Patrick Mahomes adding two more interceptions to his total for this year.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
Lovin’ the PWHL. Top Story - March 2024.
The inaugural season for professional women’s hockey is well underway and I, like many North American sports enthusiasts, have cottoned on to the excitement of the games and the fanfare. Most of the women playing are relatively well-known through previous media exposure during Olympic games, World Championships and Rivalry matches between Canada and the United States. Yesterday, March 8, being International Women’s Day, I decided that I would pay tribute to the women of the world in my own little sports-minded way, and watch a PWHL game between the teams from Toronto and Montreal. Casually observing the new teams since the start of the season, I had suspected that the Women’s league was somehow different from the NHL and other men’s hockey leagues around the world. Sometimes these differences don’t show up during the Olympic games or World Championships because of the media focus on winning gold medals and the like. However, during a regular season hockey game, be it a men’s game or a women’s game, one gets a chance to really notice what the respective games are all about. I would therefore like to weigh in on what have formerly been suspicions but now are being seen as true differences between men’s and women’s professional hockey.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Unbalanced
A Spirit That Fears Nothing. Top Story - January 2024.
There are many sound reasons to repudiate professional sport in general and NHL hockey in particular. After all, the game has been as utterly defiled by cynical, avaricious late-stage capitalism as every other aspect of contemporary existence. The ordinary fan is incessantly encouraged by marketers and advertisers to gamble, guzzle alcoholic beverages and devour kilograms of fast food, which is a bald oxymoron if you contemplate it for a moment. Salaries are stratospherically inflated, as are ticket prices, and what passes for discourse generated by the participants in, and commentators upon, the game is so full of cliches and verbal false limbs that Orwell’s ghost will never stop screaming.
By D. J. Reddall3 years ago in Unbalanced
The History of the Adams Division. Top Story - January 2024.
I've followed the NHL in some form for 30 years, but I'm still learning about the league I enjoy watching. A long time ago, I did learn about the old divisions: Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe. These divisions predated the geographical ones that we've known for the last 30 years, and the rivalries were immensely intense during that period. This will be the first of four stories focusing on those classic divisions, and I'll start geographically, even though the names had nothing to do with location. First off, the Adams Division.
By Clyde E. Dawkins2 years ago in Unbalanced
A Look Ahead to Week 18 of the 2023 NFL Season. Top Story - December 2023.
Week 17 kicks off tonight, but I want to take a look ahead to Week 18, the final week of the regular season. We all love the final week, don't we? We've really loved it since they changed the final week's schedule back in 2010. The final week always completes the league's playoff puzzle, it's do or die for a lot of teams looking to get in and even clinch divisions. However, a lot of games lacked a lot of drama, and even saw teams not give their all when they know that they can't move up in the standings. So in 2010, the NFL decided to make all of the final week's games divisional, because regardless of where a team is in the standings, that team wants to give their all to defeat a division rival.
By Clyde E. Dawkins3 years ago in Unbalanced
